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Apassionata Review
Feb. 1st, 2011 10:10 amI will get the O2 Centre inaccessibility rant out of the way first (though in actual fact, the entire journey was more funny than anything else, due to the identity of my travelling companion):
Out of all the times I've been to the O2 Centre (why do I never learn), I think there has only been one occasion that involved no transport issues. Sunday's attempt to get there, however, really took the biscuit (as well as taking *four hours*).
Home to Victoria was no problem. I met my companion at the station and we went one stop up to Green Park on the Victoria Line. We then switched to the Jubilee Line platform, where three trains in a row drew into the station, disgorged all their passengers and declared themselves out of service. No announcement was made at any time as to the nature, extent or estimated duration of the problem and we couldn't find anyone to ask. While the third train sat empty on the platform, we decided to seek an alternative route.
Plan B was to take the Victoria Line to King's Cross, switch to the Hammersmith and City Line to get to West Ham, then approach North Greenwich on the Jubilee Line from the other side. On arrival at King's Cross, we discovered that the Hammersmith and City Line was not in service due to planned engineering works.
So, we took the Northern Line to Bank, where we got on the DLR to Canning Town, where I was still hoping to be able to get the Jubilee Line one stop to North Greenwich. Arriving at Canning Town, we discovered that the Jubilee Line was actually suspended in both directions from Green Park to Stratford, essentially making North Greenwich entirely inaccassible by train. We asked a member of staff if there was a bus we could get from Canning Town to the O2 Centre and were told there wasn't and that it would also be highly inadvisable to try and walk it.
On instructions from the staff member, we then got back on the DLR and headed back the way we had come to Poplar, where we switched to a different DLR Line, which took us to Canary Wharf. This is situated one stop away from North Greenwich on the Jubliee Line on the other side, but that line was still suspended. Therefore, we changed DLR trains again and sped away from our ultimate destination down to Cutty Sark, where we trawled around for quite some time before finding the correct bus stop for a bus that would at last get us to the O2 Centre. Needless to say, there were a large number of other people waiting at that bus stop, also trying to get to the 3pm showing of Apassionata.
We finally arrived at the venue at 3:30pm (having originally left ourselves plenty of time for a leisurely lunch) to discover that the start of the show had been delayed in order to give people more time to get there, which was nice, as it meant we didn't miss much.
During the journey, we kept seeing the dome and its distincitive orange spikes out of the train window, but we always seemed to be moving away from it rather than towards it. Possibly rather stupidly (as was pointed out to me last night), at no point did either of us even think of getting a taxi...
Anyway, Apassionata itself was pretty good. The contention that it involved a comprehensible plot was entirely fantasy - occasionally a narrator would inform us of what was going on, but what he said bore almost no relation at all to anything that actually happened in the arena. Basically, the show was a series of unconnected horsemanship displays of varying kinds, interspersed with interpretative dance numbers - the poor dancers had to skip and prance through deep sawdust, avoiding occasional piles of horseshit, while the audience pretty much ignored them in favour of applauding the pretty horses - I felt rather sorry for them.
There were airs above the ground, drill rides (Icelandic ponies moving at high speed), dressage (Friesians and most surprising a gorgeous Shire), cossacks, a guy who took several pairs of horses over a flaming jump while standing with one foot on each of the back pair, and a woman who got a group of entirely loose horses to do various exercises. This last act was the only one I actively disliked because the horses seemed confused and unhappy, and all put their ears flat back against their necks every time they went near the woman in clear dislike of her.
It was all very impressive (if rather ridiculous in terms of the supposed plot) and involved some things I hadn't seen before - and I enjoyed the company immensely.
However, I will conclude with what I always say on returning home from an event at the O2 Centre - I am never going there again!
Out of all the times I've been to the O2 Centre (why do I never learn), I think there has only been one occasion that involved no transport issues. Sunday's attempt to get there, however, really took the biscuit (as well as taking *four hours*).
Home to Victoria was no problem. I met my companion at the station and we went one stop up to Green Park on the Victoria Line. We then switched to the Jubilee Line platform, where three trains in a row drew into the station, disgorged all their passengers and declared themselves out of service. No announcement was made at any time as to the nature, extent or estimated duration of the problem and we couldn't find anyone to ask. While the third train sat empty on the platform, we decided to seek an alternative route.
Plan B was to take the Victoria Line to King's Cross, switch to the Hammersmith and City Line to get to West Ham, then approach North Greenwich on the Jubilee Line from the other side. On arrival at King's Cross, we discovered that the Hammersmith and City Line was not in service due to planned engineering works.
So, we took the Northern Line to Bank, where we got on the DLR to Canning Town, where I was still hoping to be able to get the Jubilee Line one stop to North Greenwich. Arriving at Canning Town, we discovered that the Jubilee Line was actually suspended in both directions from Green Park to Stratford, essentially making North Greenwich entirely inaccassible by train. We asked a member of staff if there was a bus we could get from Canning Town to the O2 Centre and were told there wasn't and that it would also be highly inadvisable to try and walk it.
On instructions from the staff member, we then got back on the DLR and headed back the way we had come to Poplar, where we switched to a different DLR Line, which took us to Canary Wharf. This is situated one stop away from North Greenwich on the Jubliee Line on the other side, but that line was still suspended. Therefore, we changed DLR trains again and sped away from our ultimate destination down to Cutty Sark, where we trawled around for quite some time before finding the correct bus stop for a bus that would at last get us to the O2 Centre. Needless to say, there were a large number of other people waiting at that bus stop, also trying to get to the 3pm showing of Apassionata.
We finally arrived at the venue at 3:30pm (having originally left ourselves plenty of time for a leisurely lunch) to discover that the start of the show had been delayed in order to give people more time to get there, which was nice, as it meant we didn't miss much.
During the journey, we kept seeing the dome and its distincitive orange spikes out of the train window, but we always seemed to be moving away from it rather than towards it. Possibly rather stupidly (as was pointed out to me last night), at no point did either of us even think of getting a taxi...
Anyway, Apassionata itself was pretty good. The contention that it involved a comprehensible plot was entirely fantasy - occasionally a narrator would inform us of what was going on, but what he said bore almost no relation at all to anything that actually happened in the arena. Basically, the show was a series of unconnected horsemanship displays of varying kinds, interspersed with interpretative dance numbers - the poor dancers had to skip and prance through deep sawdust, avoiding occasional piles of horseshit, while the audience pretty much ignored them in favour of applauding the pretty horses - I felt rather sorry for them.
There were airs above the ground, drill rides (Icelandic ponies moving at high speed), dressage (Friesians and most surprising a gorgeous Shire), cossacks, a guy who took several pairs of horses over a flaming jump while standing with one foot on each of the back pair, and a woman who got a group of entirely loose horses to do various exercises. This last act was the only one I actively disliked because the horses seemed confused and unhappy, and all put their ears flat back against their necks every time they went near the woman in clear dislike of her.
It was all very impressive (if rather ridiculous in terms of the supposed plot) and involved some things I hadn't seen before - and I enjoyed the company immensely.
However, I will conclude with what I always say on returning home from an event at the O2 Centre - I am never going there again!
